Neuroscience: Links between Mental Illness and Intelligence

[General Asad]

Your brain's heightened sensitivity can make you perceptive and creative. But it's a double-edged sword, researchers find.

People with high IQ are considered to have an advantage in many domains. They are predicted to have higher educational attainment, better jobs, and a higher income level. Yet, it turns out that a high IQ is also associated with various mental and immunological diseases like depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, ADHD as well as allergies, asthma, and immune disorders. Why is that? A new paper published in the journal Intelligence reviews the literature and explores the mechanisms that possibly underlie this connection.

The study authors compared data taken from 3,715 members of the American Mensa Society (people who have scored in the top 2% of intelligent tests) to data from national surveys in order to examine the prevalence of several disorders in those with higher intelligence compared to the average population.

The results showed that highly intelligent people are 20% more likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 80% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, 83% more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety, and 182% more likely to develop at least one mood disorder.

When it comes to physiological diseases, people with high cognitive abilities are 213% more likely to have environmental allergies, 108% more likely to have asthma, and 84% more likely to have an autoimmune disease.

The researchers turned to the field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) to look for some of the answers. PNI examines how the chronic stress accumulated as a response to environmental factors influences the communication between the brain and the immune system.

The researchers point out that highly intelligent people have tendencies for “intellectual overexcitabilites" and a hyper-reactivity of the central nervous system. On the one hand, this gives people with high IQ heightened awareness that helps their creative and artistic work. In fact, the field of cognitive ability recognizes one aspect of highly intelligent people to be “a broader and deeper capacity to comprehend their surroundings."

This hyper-reactivity, however, can also lead to deeper depressions and poor mental health. This turns out to be particularly true for poets, novelists and people with high verbal intelligence. Their intense emotional response to the environment increases tendencies for rumination and worry, both of which predict depression and anxiety disorders.

Heightened psychological responses can affect immunity, write the researchers. People with overexcitabilites may have strong reactions to seemingly harmless external stimuli like an annoying clothing tag or a sound. This reaction may turn into low level chronic stress and launch an inappropriate immune response.


When the body believes it is in danger (regardless of whether it is an objectively real one like a toxin or an imagined one like an annoying sound), it launches a cascade of physiological responses that include a myriad of hormones, neurotransmitters and signaling molecules. When these processes are chronically activated, they can alter the body and the brain, dysregulate immune function and lead to conditions like asthma, allergies and autoimmune diseases.

The scientific literature has confirmed the association between gifted children and an increased rate of allergies and asthma. One study shows that 44% of those with an IQ over 160 suffered from allergies compared to 20% of age-matched peers. Тhe exploratory study done by the authors of this latest paper further supports that connection.

Based on their findings and previous studies the researchers have termed this phenomenon the hyper brain / hyper body theory of integration, explaining that:

The overexcitabilities specific to those with high intelligence may put these individuals at risk for hypersensitivity to internal and/or external environmental events. The rumination and worry that accompanies this heightened awareness may contribute to a chronic pattern of fight, flight, or freeze responses which then launch a cascade of immunological events. [...] Ideally, immune regulation is an optimal balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory response. It should zero in on inflammation with force and then immediately return to a calm state. In those with the overexcitabilities previously discussed, including in those with ASD, this system appears to fail to achieve a balance and thus inflammatory signals create a state of chronic activation.

The authors conclude that it is important to further study the relationship between high intelligence (particularly the top 2%) and illness, especially in order to demonstrate causation and further bring to light the negative aspects of having a high IQ. As they say, “this gift can either be a catalyst for empowerment and self-actualization or it can be a predictor of dysregulation and debilitation" and in order to serve this group, it is important “to acknowledge the rumbles of thunder that follow in the wake of their brilliance."

https://bigthink.com/design-for-goo...ple-suffer-more-mental-and-physical-disorders

 

[The_Kong Dong]

If intelligent people are more prone to mental illness then the users of this forum must be geniuses

 

[General Asad]

Intelligence, Creativity and Mania
Why do smart and manic so often go together?

Natural psychology, the new psychology of meaning, takes a particular interest in smart people and their poignant challenges. I wrote recently about the “smart gap,” the distance between where an intelligent person feels herself to be or may in fact be and the intelligence she needs in order to accomplish the work she intends to do. Today I want to chat about that mysterious, fascinating and frequently dangerous state known as mania.

Mania can hit anyone, since it can be induced by street drugs and by other causes as well as by the dynamics of one’s own racing, needy brain. But I want to focus on the way that it afflicts intelligent and creative people. That they are afflicted is beyond question. Research shows a linkage between A grades and “bipolar disorder,” between high test scores and “bipolar disorder,” and so on. There is plenty of evidence to support the contention that mania disproportionately affects smart and creative people.


One study involving 700,000 adults and reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry indicated that former straight-A students were four times more likely to be “bipolar” (or “manic-depressive”) than their peers. In another study individuals who scored the highest on tests for “mathematical reasoning” were at a 12-times greater risk for “contracting bipolar disorder.” Similar studies underline the linkage between creativity and mania and we have thousands of years of anecdotal evidence in support of the view that smart and creative people are often manic.


“Manic-depression” and “bipolar disorder” are in quotation marks in the previous paragraph because the current naming system used to describe “mental disorders” is weak and suspect and perhaps so flawed as to be both useless and dangerous. I’ve discussed this in Rethinking Depression and elsewhere. The current naming system also leads to odd and wrong-headed hypotheses, for example “because you are bipolar you are creative” or “perhaps mania accounts for the higher test scores.” It is hard to make any real use of the research as currently conducted, except to nod in agreement with its results, as they are exactly what we would expect: the greater the intelligence, the greater the susceptibility to mania.

All of the characteristic “symptoms” that we see in mania, including seemingly high spirits, heightened sexual appetite, high arousal levels, high energy levels, sweating, pacing, sleeplessness and, at its severest, when the train has run off the rails, hallucinations, delusions of grandeur, suspiciousness, aggression and all sorts of wild, self-defeating plans and schemes, make perfect sense when viewed from the perspective that a powerful need has supercharged a brain inclined to generate thoughts. This thought machine has been revved up in the service of nothing less than the direst existential hunger, lack, or fear imaginable. All the rest follows.


The driving impulse or “must” may not be only pain or even pain. You may be working on a novel or a scientific theory that excites you and you can’t wait to get on with it. Still, that excited pursuit, even though in pursuit of something positive and valuable, has caused your mind to move from gear to higher gear, dramatically revving up the engine that is your brain, and now that engine is whining and straining. The same dangerous dynamic is now at play: are you driving the engine or is the engine driving you?

What is the answer? Natural psychology has many answers having to do with the art and practice of making meaning. However the short answer is increased self-awareness and the courage to see one’s own games and tactics. It is the individual exposing this situation to himself and for himself, announcing that he must wrest control of his mind and his life, and practicing the techniques conventionally called mindfulness techniques, that amount to the short answer.

If a given individual won’t do this work or at this split second can’t do this work, because her mania just can’t be mediated by her own efforts in the state in which she finds herself, then she may indeed be forced to resort to the conventional, unfortunate solution of psychiatric medicine. She may need lithium, anticonvulsants, calcium channel blockers, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, or some other chemical used to “treat mania” and with the power (though only sometimes, and always with a cost) to do that work for her: the work of modulating her mind and meeting her meaning needs.


In the end it is the smart “manic” individual who ultimately must accomplish the odd and seemingly impossible task of saying, if only in a whisper, “I know the secret here and the answer is not mania.” In a naturalistic vision of what is going on, where it is completely sensible and plausible how this wild ride came to be by virtue of the twin engines of intelligence and need, we ask the individual, and demand of him if we love him, that he examine his reasons for racing and not feel so free to race.


It is not a race that can be won, a truth the smart manic knows somewhere in her being and a truth that brings with it additional sadness even at the height of the racing. Indeed, it is that sadness that the smart manic is fleeing as fast as she can, even as she is racing right toward it. It is like the Sufi tale of the disciple who flees his town because he believes that Death is coming for him there and races right to the place where Death is waiting. That is exactly where the manic also arrives, at “depression.”


There is a similar story to be told about creativity and mania. It is not that the two phenomena “associate” for no particular reason. It is that the creative person who experiences creating as a meaning opportunity is pressured to create and pressured to race in the service of her creative efforts, a pressure that she can usually mediate but which sometimes overwhelms her. But this is another story. For now the headline is as follows: if you are smart you are at a “substantially greater risk for mania.” This is too brief a look at this important subject but I hope that it has given you a glimpse of the issue and a hint at solutions.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...alth/201206/intelligence-creativity-and-mania

 

[General Asad]

The Association Between Major Mental Disorders and Geniuses

There exists an association between creativity and major mental disorders known since antiquity. The ancient Greeks considered both as “having been touched by the gods.” Aristoteles, in his perspicacity, stated, “There is no genius without having a touch of madness.” This phenomenon has been verified repeatedly in studies in the past.1-4 Does one phenomenon cause the other or do both share a common underlying factor or mechanism? How are geniuses able to accomplish “creative fits”? In this article, both questions are addressed.


Although the proposed origin and mechanism of the brain function of creative geniuses is novel, empirical evidence is available to support this theory. Empirical evidence demonstrates that creativity and major mental disorders share a common pool made up of individuals with an extreme temperamental variant who, if endowed with other qualities (eg, high intelligence, tenacity, curiosity, energy) and live in a nurturing and complementary zeitgeist, can be creative geniuses. On the other hand, persons with a similar temperament but who do not have the additional qualities form a common pool of individuals who are at increased risk for a major mental disorder.5

Temperament

A few remarks regarding temperament are warranted, since they are cogent and relevant to the discussion in this article. Temperament is defined as the particular inborn behavioral propensities for each individual, which ultimately represents the final brain structural reality. It not only acts as an unfinished scaffold upon which the personality of the individual is formed, but it also guides the significance of environmental influences that are eventually embedded in the scaffold. Both constitute, along with learned attitudes and ethos, the final personality of the individual.


Temperamental components appear to originate from two areas from our evolutionary past and are expressed in distinct clusters. The first cluster originates from the evolutionary pressures on the individual, expressed as selfishness, inner directness, aloofness, and self-serving calculations. The second area/group originates from the evolutionary pressures on the social aspects of human experience, such as sociability, connectedness, empathy, altruism, mutuality, cooperation, and loyalty to one’s tribe (ie, tribalism). These two unamalgamated clusters make up human nature.6,7

From an evolutionary standpoint, the normally occurring small temperamental variability, or traits, confers flexibility and resilience for the survival of the tribe as a whole, irrespective of advantage or even disadvantage to the individual. Importantly, the mix of the temperamental components are often not distributed evenly but appear as clusters originating mainly from one or the other part of our human nature. This creates the often lopsided temperamental types (eg, the extrovert and the introvert).

In creative geniuses, there exists a major variation from the norm of the inborn temperament. This variant lies beyond the normally occurring variability. Referring to major mental disorder, Freud called it “narcissistic neuroses.”8 This extreme variant is also seen in other individuals at risk for major mental disorders. When and if a major mental disorder does develop (probabilistically amenable to prediction only by statistical methods), the individual’s preexisting lopsided traits manifest as premorbid personality.5


Findings from clinical empirical evidence indicate that this extreme variant originates mainly from evolutionary pressures and is shared by potential geniuses and other vulnerable individuals. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder are the 3 conditions that develop most frequently in vulnerable individuals. These conditions can overlap or switch from one to another. Relapses have traditionally been attributed to comorbidity; however, each syndrome might be considered as a different phase of the same disorder. Clinical evidence points to a common neurodevelopmental origin for all three.9 Similar results have also been seen in recent genetic studies.10

These individuals are to various degrees less social, more self-centered, and aloof. They may exhibit remarkable “learned” affability and civility, but they are, to various degrees, inner-directed, autonomous, and deficient in empathy and connectedness. They tend to “think” the world rather than “feel” it. Persons with this temperament, behave oddly and are often perceived as fickle, idiosyncratic, peculiar, or strange. They are often dysphoric and tend to feel an “inner void, and aloneness within.”

Occasionally this progresses to episodes of precipitous depression and can lead to suicide or substance abuse. These individuals exhibit a kind of “Robinson Crusoe of the spirit,” although as in the case of talented performers, it may generate great merriment, affection, and enthusiasm in their audience (an example might be the recent death of the much-loved actor Robin Williams). These individuals are racked by doubts and mood oscillations, and they are often captives of compulsive rituals.

 

[General Asad]

Proposed mechanisms

A great portion of our brain’s function is normally allocated for social intercourse and for the “give-and-take” inherent in myriad social interactions. Humans are social creatures, our phenomenal evolutionary success as a species—“eusociality”—depended on this.6 This dedicated-to-social-functioning component of our brain fosters the development of empathy, altruism, and cooperation. It enables us to discern emotionally the intentions and feelings of others and to interact with others. All of these factors form the second part of our nature, which originates from the evolutionary pressures of the social aspects of human experience.6,7


The absence or deficiency of the social algorithms in brain function frees enormous power in the brains of these temperamentally lopsided individuals. This power then becomes available for creative processes in the right individual. Creative persons are now able to think in alternatives, and conciliate and synthesize patterns to come up with novel solutions to seemingly intractable problems and/or create stirring works of art that emotionally mobilize us to narratives of human predicaments. Moreover, creative geniuses envision new and compre- hensively applicable paradigms of nature’s workings. They bypass our evolutionary limits of comprehension and invent ways to access the mathematical arrangement of nature, thereby conceiving, for example, quantum mechanics. Although often exhibiting a learned civility, these individuals may nevertheless be deficient in understanding the algorithms that help us perceive and comprehend the emotional gestalt, state of mind, and intentions needed for social interaction.

This lopsided variant, deficient in social algorithms, may be related to the autistic spectrum (eg, savants who can recite the list of an entire telephone book) or to traumatic brain injury (eg, persons who develop sudden heightened or de novo creative skills after the injury).

Creative individuals


Individuals with this type of so-called brain deficiency exhibit exuberant confidence as national leaders and religious figures. Matched with guile and charm, such persons are often the rare individuals who are gifted with charisma. The charismatic individual is able to transform nations or create religious movements by playing to our social nature. He or she uses our innate yearning for certainty in a world of uncertainty and ambiguity to lure us into unreflecting submissiveness to his or her dictates.

Creative individuals are prone to be “cyclothymic,” while scientists and engineers predominantly tend to be “schizoid.”1-3 Unfortunately, creative geniuses are more vulnerable to major mental disorders.5 There are many examples of this phenome- non throughout history. Charles Darwin was aloof, obsessive-compulsive, and a hypochondriac.11 His co-discoverer and fellow genius, Alfred Wallace, was also aloof and a lonely wanderer. Nikola Tesla was often mentally compromised, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart suffered from mood swings. Beethoven was periodically depressed; Tolstoy was a strange, otherworldly, idiosyncratic aristocrat; and let’s not forget the periodically outright psychotic, super-genius Isaac Newton. Albert Einstein was an aloof man who mistreated his second wife Elsa (who was also his cousin). He gave away his illegitimate daughter, sight unseen, although on the surface he displayed social affability and charm.12

More recently, Steve Jobs, a very intense, compulsive genius, exhibited signs of cyclothymia.13 He was able to recruit the creative powers of others and literally built the realm of computer technology. Yet, under oath, he swore impotence and sterility to avoid the obligations to his illegitimate daughter. And the list goes on and on.


Winston Churchill had periodic dark moods, Theodore Roosevelt had mood oscillations, and the often melancholy and otherworldly Abraham Lincoln and Alexander the Great were seized by demonic fits.

Creative individuals share a similar lopsided temperament with other individuals who are vulnerable to major mental disorders.2 Their temperamental components are an extreme variant that originates from evolutionary pressures. Although deficient in social algorithms, this releases enormous brain power that enables these unencumbered individuals to excel in creative activities. Individuals also endowed with high intelligence, curiosity, persistence of effort, tenacity, energy, and enthusiasm are able to reach heightened levels of creativity in art, science, and politics.

Conclusion

The readily observable phenomena discussed here provide promising leads for future studies in molecular genetics and evolutionary biology, which will bring us closer to understanding the origin of temperament and its variability. Most important, further studies may identify temperamental clusters that increase the risk of a major mental disorder.

https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/ma...-major-mental-disorders-and-geniuses/page/0/1

 

[Lostbox]

Na, the proximity to success is the most important factor in my opinion. I've seen talent, high IQ and so on but simply being near multiple successful people beats all of that. Simply because of access. We are such social that the social matters so much. I think it's because other people make you successfully. Be it giving you money, likes on social media and so on all add up in the end.

A little bit of connection, a little bit of help and a small boot will take you a long way

 

[DR OSMAN]

Somalis beware of the 'high functioning' Mentally ill who are not much different to yourself and you won't probably even notice as they learn to manage it and live with it or some use it as a way to 'engage ideas' from their brain. When your in that boring normal state, the brain isn't as brilliant, trust me I know. I become like 'depressed and just not thinking right'. In other words I become 'zomby' again like you guys. It's when I am in that 'altered mood state' when I write down all my ideas and come back to it later and use it when I am normal state and start presenting it orderly, logically, testable u know the scientificc way so they have no 'chance to say it's jibberish' when u can 'test' it and see it with your own eyes.

As for the low functioning mentally they are not 'gifted' untill they learn to become 'high functioning'. The reason is they won't be able multi-switch the mind into 'altered state' to grab the 'ideas' and then 'write' it down when your in the 'normal boring state' where u apply the scientific method to prove it. Science ain't shit without the IDEA first to begin lol. I can do it with any 'field' wallahi not just politics but military.

For example, I am finding ways to culturally 'test' a theory for Puntites, I haven't told u because it's not provable yet. I want to bring 10 bah dubays subjects and get them to use 'khat' and see if their brainpower increases on 'sciences' obviously I need to ensure he has some background in sciences(which is why I want to send a few thru abaarso by cutting a deal with sacad muse). I want to bring them back to birta dheer and say my 'ideas' are generated thru identical 'mood state' khat gives u, it opens up the mind to think creatively. I don't know if it will work, hence I have to figure a way out to 'test' it or else I know the 'normal' folks will respond 'bipolar' 'mentally ill' and character assasination. If it works, I GOT my einsteins and nuclear boys in the making and the way to increase brain power but direct it towards PRODUCTION

Most Somalis assume mentally ill are just all in hospital lol. I personally think all inventors had some sort of madness or how else did he think outside the realities of his world? the only reason I am aware of my reality or surroundings more is because of my altered 'mania and hallucinations' proves to me 'reality' is 'fixed' bro so I just need to find the 'keys' to it

 

[Samaalic Era]

If intelligent people are more prone to mental illness then the users of this forum must be geniuses

 

[DR OSMAN]

@The_Kong Dong It's true all inventors were mentally ill or some form of 'problem' or they were not cut out of school like einstein and considered dyslexic. U wont find inventions from the 'masses' as they are in the same state of 'logical processes' which is only useful once u have an 'idea' that is the part the brain has to think OUTSIDE THE BOX and it's difficult in normal state hence they become 'workers' or mundane politicians and not great states-men.

Just look at how normal people think, it can't produce a product sxb or an idea that can lead to a product, u need to 'all out wild and know thought experiment and vision of it in your mind' then u need to learn how to logically process it, thats when logic is useful. The failed mentally ill cannot logically process it and hence it sounds 'wild' i listen to them for inspiration of my ideas also when I got none and try to break it down logically knowing i used to be like that but no longer am. U need to know how to find ideas sxb or repeating everyone else action every day and nothing changes

 

[General Asad]

1. ABRAHAM LINCOLN // DEPRESSION
2. LUDWIG VON BEETHOVEN // BIPOLAR DISORDER
3. EDVARD MUNCH // PANIC ATTACKS
4. MICHELANGELO // AUTISM
   
5. CHARLES DICKENS // DEPRESSION
   
6. CHARLES DARWIN // AGORAPHOBIA
   
7. WINSTON CHURCHILL // BIPOLAR DISORDER
   
8. VASLAV NIJINSKY // SCHIZOPHRENIA
   KURT GÖDEL // PERSECUTORY DELUSIONS
   
9. VASLAV NIJINSKY // SCHIZOPHRENIA
   
10. LEO TOLSTOY // DEPRESSION
    
    
11. ISSAC NEWTON // BIPOLAR, AUTISM,

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/12500/11-historical-geniuses-and-their-possible-mental-disorders